Inspirational keynote speeches, industry insight, and sneak peeks into the future of Vectorworks software are just the beginning of what you’ll get by attending the Vectorworks Design Summit at the Sofitel Philadelphia hotel on April 27-29. While you’re having fun connecting with your peers from around the world and discussing the future of design, you’ll also be earning AIA LUs and LA CES credits at a variety of sessions that we’ve put together with your educational needs in mind.

How do you keep your creative edge? That is one of the many questions that will be addressed during our second installment of the Business of Creativity video series, airing Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Prior to the premier of the video, entitled “Staying Creative In Your Firm,” registered participants will receive an email detailing how they can view the discussion.

For students trying to break into the professional world, networking and exposure are everything. That’s why Nemetschek Vectorworks created the Student Conference Pass program, a competition where students who write compelling essays about their career aspirations are selected to attend major industry conferences at our expense. Students Ry Burke of Reed College, Carson Cooper of the Rhode Island School of Design, and Megan Ukoh of University of Maryland, College Park, traveled to the LDI, ASLA, and Greenbuild conferences this year, respectively. Keep an eye on these up-and-coming industry professionals!

As people gather in the homes of friends and family during the holiday season, it’s easy to forget that many people may spend this time at local hospitals, health care facilities, and community support organizations. But these spaces don’t have to be bereft of holiday cheer, which is why Nemetschek Vectorworks is sponsoring the nationwide GINGERTOWN initiatives for the second year in a row: a one-of-a-kind program that brings together architects, engineers, and contractors across various cities to create communities of gingerbread houses for a good cause.

The year is 1917; Russia has just pulled out of World War I, the last of the Tsars have been deposed, and Konstantin Melnikov walks out of architecture school, degree in hand, ready to make his mark on the world. The rapidly changing political, economic, and social landscape of the time was reflected in many forms of art, including architecture, whose practitioners rallied into two camps: the constructivists, who believed that buildings should exist solely to serve a function, and the rationalists, who argued for the place of idealism in the design process. Melnikov seems to defy this binary at every turn, creating projects that could fit into both categories and wouldn’t look out of place among the works of today’s “modern” architects. His visionary designs are dissected and analyzed in the first installment of Nemetschek Vectorworks’Art In Architecture webinar series, “Melnikov: Early Sparks of Russian Iconic Architecture.”

Following the English release of Vectorworks 2015 in September, localized versions of the new software version are now available in German, French, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Norwegian. Visit Vectorworks Worldwide to find a local distributor.